Conversation: Ryan Newman

LONG POND, Pa. -- Ryan Newman had a short apprenticeship in stock cars before bursting on the Winston Cup scene in 2002 by winning a race, scoring the most top-five finishes and capturing rookie of the year honors.

In 2003, Newman's fortunes have been jaggedly divergent, with two victories and eight top-15 finishes in the first 14 races tempered by five finishes worse than 38th. The sum of his season leaves him in 16th in the Winston Cup standings.

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Newman, who scored his third career victory from the Bud Pole two weekends ago at Dover International Speedway, sat down with NASCAR.com's Dave Rodman to talk about rivalries, dirt-track racing and what he does with free time.

Could you imagine a more perfect pairing of a driver and a crew chief than yourself and Matt Borland, a pair of engineers?

I think we're a lot alike in our thinking and our thought process as far as the engineering end of it and how to solve problems or create solutions. I think that it's been a lot of fun working with Matt. With his engineering background at GMI and me at Purdue, our background in racing really creates a backbone of chemistry for the things we do together.

On the other hand, can you imagine your Penske Racing teammate, Rusty Wallace -- a real seat of the pants guy -- working with Matt, a technician?

I don't know how that would go. It would be a tough one, for sure.

Back in your open-wheel days, did you sling a lot of parts around, work on your own cars, or where you just a driver?

I always worked on my own cars and maintained them, did the set-ups, things like that. Obviously, I also drove them so I was always a hands-on, involved, seat of the pants driver.

RYAN NEWMAN  •  Driver Page  •  2003 Stats  •  Driver vs. Driver

How much of an adjustment has it been to come to the Winston Cup level and leave all that hands-on stuff behind? Do you miss it?

I miss it, but when you have great guys doing that work, you don't feel like you have to do it yourself, is the bottom line. Between Matt and Mike Nelson and all the guys on the team they take care of 99 percent of that stuff and they rely on me one percent of the time, and that's it.

A lot of people, particularly those familiar with dirt track racing, feel like you drive a car "on the right rear tire." Is that true?

No, I don't. To me, I balance the car so it feels good to me. When we ran dirt you ran the car on the right rear because you're running the cushion and you had to. The car had to have some cushion for the cushion. But in stock cars you have to have all four tires working as equally as possible so that's all we do. No matter what spring goes where, we're trying to get all four tires to work equally.

Is there any credence for anyone to say your loose-car, dirt-track background explains your ability to qualify?

All it is is getting a balanced car that's fast everywhere. It comes down to the guys, the horsepower, the bodies and how we apply everything. We do it the same way in qualifying as we do in race trim.

What would you say to anyone that says you prefer to start events with your tire pressures abnormally low?

Anyone is going to start a run with their tire pressures set as low as they can get away with. That way, you develop the optimum pressure by the end of a run, rather than have tire pressures that build up and keep your car from handling at its best before the end of a run. The accident at Talladega had nothing to do with tire pressures. It was a cut tire, and that can happen no matter what your pressure settings are.

What place do rivalries have in this sport? Do you think rivalries are craved by fans and created by the media, while the competitors don't really acknowledge them?

	Credit: Autostock

I don't see any rivals out there. I think the media, of all people, tries to create the rivalries and the extreme high levels of competition. I don't think that there is as much rivalry between drivers as the media makes it out to be.

Have you had the opportunity to talk to Tony Stewart about not being given his lap back at Dover that he was so upset about? He has acknowledged it was his mistake to get a lap down and he respects your decision.

No. He probably would take a little time to come talk to me. To me, it was racing, and that's what we're there for on Sundays, is to race. We won at it.

Last year it seemed like you could do no wrong, while this year a lot of crazy things have been happening to your team, even while you've run well virtually everywhere. Is there any difficulty for the team to keep its focus under these circumstances?

We had plenty of problems last year with things that just happened, whether it was engine failures or whatever. This year, the engines have been great but we've had other problems. Some of them have been self-induced, so you learn from those situations and try to keep the freak things from happening.

Some guys, like Tony Stewart and Jason Leffler, have tried to keep on open-wheel racing. How much do you miss it and would you like to be able to do some of it?

I miss it a lot, but I would never give this up or risk the great opportunity I have here at Penske Racing. So I've continued to focus on what I do here. I would love to go back and do some of those races and potentially I could, but it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense with the risk factor in there.

VIDEO CLIPS Newman wins a three-car battle at Texas in March Play video Newman conquers Dover for his second win of 2003 Play video

What do you do away from the racetrack, for relaxation?

I don't know that I have a favorite -- I enjoy a little bit of everything. I like fishing a lot and try to spend a little bit of time doing that. I like old cars. I like spending time with my girlfriend and my family, but it's all just a way to separate what you like to do outside of racing.

How do your see your prospects at the diverse set of races you have coming up, at Michigan, the road course in Sonoma, California and then back to Daytona?

We had a pretty good run at Sears Point last year, even though we didn't qualify very well. We raced well there. Daytona, obviously, has been a problem for us the last couple races, but I don't see any reason why we can't bounce back from that and have a good run there.